Memetic Mutation

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Most of what is unusual about man can be summed up in one word: "culture". I use the word not in its snobbish sense, but as a scientist uses it. Cultural transmission is analogous to genetic transmission in that, although basically conservative, it can give rise to a form of evolution.

Which means we don't want themnote Well,mostofthem. in TV Tropes articles. Because we are not interested in being muddled, dated, and beyond humor.

Fandom being what it is, this also applies to characters. The Internet is liable to spread a "meme" version of a character which is totally (sometimes deliberately) at odds with the original depiction, such as a cheerful version of a dark or scary character, a sexy version of a character featured in a Jekyll & Hyde episode, or an unlucky-yet-annoyingly-optimistic version of a normally depressed, tragic character.

Another quirk of memes depends on where they're initially propagated. Memes often spread regardless of content, taste, or sensibilities, while the original source may be the only ones who know enough about the source material to use it ironically. As well, some memes reference something common, but become catchy enough to be associated with only a single new thing.

Note that while this article refers to internet-based memes, the phenomenon is not just limited to the internet. It can be an instance of The Catch Phrase Catches On, which is when a phrase or saying from fiction becomes popular as an expression used in Real Life. However, certain memes are only popular to a certain group.

The Trope Namer (for the word meme) is Richard Dawkins, who suggested a Mind Virus-like model of society: that cultural information is inherited and reproduced, occasionally with minor mutations, in a similar way to genetic information.

When adding to one of the subpages, please write the meme, then add the explanation of the meme inside a labelnote titled "Explanation." Explanation This is just the example. Follow it this way.

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